HMS Hood - Trumpeter 1/350

[IJNfan]

Hello Everybody,

 

Since January this year I have picked up once more the hobby of scale modelling. Until 6 years ago I had already occupied myself with making ships and right now I needed an extra hobby aside of playing games, reading books and playing the pipe organ and stuff so I decided to pick up where I left and add some extra skills to my toolbox, (I never Painted in the past😬), get myself an airbrush an kickstart myself into building ships once more. Since corona gave me a load of free time I went to the hobby shop and bought several kits among which were, the 1/700 USS west virginia, Enterprise and IJN MAYA the 1/144 Revell Uboat XXI with Interior. problem was tough that with these kits, I simply glued them together, painted them their colors and finished. That didn't really work because I'd be finished much too soon. So I decided to go on with the Hasegawa 1/350 Yahagi with all the Hasegawa PE which would be followed by the HMS Hood 1/350 from Trumpeter.

 

Around the first week of July I started working on the Hood and I finished it this week on Monday. This kit is my first kit that I have build with a dedicated PE set from another producer than the producer of the base kit itself and it was really nice, especially the result.

 

So what did I use,

1x the Trumpeter hood 1/350

1x The Flyhawk Resin upgrade set for better turrets

1x The flyhawk Pe upgrade set 

1x The eduard Upgrade set

1x Infini Winches.

I did these instead of North star because I saw these once and thought them to be absolutely underwhelming. 
1x Artwox Wooden deck (I also Bought the Wooden Deck of trumpeter itself but It wouldn't fit, was only several euro's though)

 

Next step before the Build was to figure out which colors i would use for the ship because I use Tamiya's and the scheme was in Gunze. I did some research so as to get at least a somewhat "accurate" semblance to the original in 1941. 

 

I decided on using the following colors

For the hull Tamiya hull red, which would be coated with AK red streaking grime for some variation in color tone 

For the 507 grey I used Xf-82, based on some research delving into fora and such I thought this color to better looking and matching than the XF-66. (personal opinion though😇)
The boat deck was a different color tone, i decided on XF-24 because it nicely matched the xf-82, but whether it is very accurate to have a much darker boat deck is somewhat questionable I think.
For the decks of the Bridge I used XF-79 on the advice of the Hood Association. 
In the end the Model was coated in X-22 Clear and weathered using AK enamel weathering products.

To finish it off I rigged the thing with the help of Trumpy's instructions and some personal touches, using Uschi 0.03mm thin wire. This stuff is great, just don't overstretch or your parts will bent. 

 

As for the kit

 

The fit of the trumpeter kit was horrible. I never had to use this much putty in any model until now, which admittedly doesn't say much, but it wasn't very funny at times. 

You will likely notice that the Quads haven't been placed yet. these are still in Transit from North Star...

 

Here are the pictures

 

My Hood isn't by long as good as the other Hoods I have seen on this forum, but I myself am very much delighted by the outcome, the ship is nice, and as I have a long infatuation with this ship it will get a nice place in my cabinet. 
I don't yet know what will be next, I have a Botched project waiting on the bench for me to finish and a Nagato (Pontos) in stash but also a 1/350 Mikuma (with Aber, Eduard, infini and veteran goodies) that I got for my 20th Birthday recently. Anyway, in due time more models will surely come this way,

Greetings from Holland

 

Edited September 3, 2020 by IJNfan
incomplete, accidently posted

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday IJNfan, don't be too critical of your model here, I think it is very good and waaay beyond what I could do. I think she was an elegant ship too.

     I'm looking forward to seeing your USS West Virginia (before or after her Pearl Harbour damage rebuild?) and your IJN ships. Although I have built very few of them I hope to do so in the future. I think many of them had quite graceful lines. IMHO I also think they were somewhat underestimated by us, until they gave us a bloody nose or two.

     I'm looking forward to seeing more ship builds from you. Regards, Jeff.

[IJNfan]

Thanks Jeff,

 

In the case of the WV I specifically choose the 1941 version because I found the old version much nicer in looks than the revised version could ever be. 

 

The Japanese Ships were indeed underestimated. Especially their destroyers, carriers and cruisers, in 1941 their carriers were top notch (including the crew) and their cruiser could do their Job well, they practically shredded their enemies in the pacific early 1942 (Sunda strait for example), but on the other hand they were a little over engineered as well and had their problems, it wasn't said for nothing that: "they must be building their ships out of cardboard or lying [about the displacement]".

And their battleships had serious flaws, they were either modernized super dreadnoughts (Ise-, Fuso-, Nagato-class), battlecruisers (Kongo Class) or bulky honky pieces of massive steel waste without proper fire control. Think of how the Washington Killed of the Kirishima while the South Dakota couldn't be damaged underneath the armor.  

 

So were they underestimated? Maybe, like every ship they had pro's and cons, but in my view they were indeed more attractive than USN ships were and the IJN dreadnaughts are on the top of my wish-to-build-list. 

 

As for your picture requests which modeler would ever providing some pictures of his work🤪

 

IJN YAHAGI 

IJN MAYA

USS WEST-VIRGINIA

[Nick C]

She looks great, nice job !

[ForestFan]

Very nice! I always respect you ship modellers, I’d never have that amount of patience!

[IJNfan]

4 hours ago, ForestFan said:

Very nice! I always respect you ship modellers, I’d never have that amount of patience!

Exercising patience is the most difficult part of building a ship, and sometimes it can result in quite some unfriendly words. But ships also provide much longer / deeper challenge, in my view as they take much longer than planes of tanks (if you don't do a diorama), with massive part-counts and daring photo-etch. And you learn when you go, if you'd try it yourself and start with an appropriate model to start with You'd learn it as well. When I was 9 I took a Lindberg Missouri as my first ever kit, and now 11 years later I build these ships like the Hood...

Edited September 8, 2020 by IJNfan

[maurice northcott]

A nice rendition. Well done "IJNfan" 😀

[Rod bettencourt]

Very nice build! Thanks for sharing.

 

 

Rod

[Chewbacca]

Very impressive.

[robgizlu]

Lovely finish and detailing

Rob